Samuel J. Dwyer, III, PhD, FSIIM Memorial Lectures

The Dwyer Lectureship was named for Samuel J. Dwyer, III, PhD, FSIIM, who has been characterized by his peers as a humble, prolific pioneer, and longtime friend of SIIM. Throughout his career, Dr. Dwyer identified, measured, and quantified issues that no one else thought about. His early contributions to digital medical imaging are still a part of the curriculum for new students in the field.

Each year, the Lecturer is selected from the prestigious SIIM College of Fellows as the presenter of a particularly relevant and insightful topic in imaging informatics and is featured at the society’s annual meeting.

About Samuel Dwyer

On May 4, 2002 at the SCAR Annual Meeting in Cleveland, Samuel Joseph Dwyer, III, Ph.D. became the ninth SCAR member to be inducted into the SCAR College of Fellows. Dr. Dwyer was born on June 8, 1932 in San Antonio, TX. Sadly, he passed away on February 5, 2008. Dr. Dwyer was the humble, prolific pioneer of digital medical imaging and was a longtime friend of SIIM.

At the University of Texas-Austin, he received his BSEE, his MSEE and PhD specializing in systems and signal processing. After teaching electrical engineering at the University of Texas and the University of Missouri, Dr. Dwyer became the Director of Diagnostic Imaging and Radiological Sciences at the University of Kansas College of Health Sciences and Hospital in 1978. He left in 1991 to become the Professor and Chief of the Division of Medical Imaging at UCLA School of Medicine. Dr. Dwyer at the time of his retirement was a Professor of Radiology at the University of Virginia Health Sciences System.

From 1979-1984, Dr. Dwyer sat on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Library of Medicine. His research in radiology has been funded by the National Cancer Institute, Public Health Service, NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the US Army Medical Research and Development Command.

Dr. Dwyer has chaired the SPIE Conference in Medical Imaging for 8 years, and served as Chairman of SCAR (1990) and Chairman of RISC (1992). He was an associate editor of the Journal of Digital Imaging. He has served in various other editor capacities for the Journal of Investigative Radiology, Journal of Telemedicine, Journal of Academic Radiology and Medical Physics and the Journal of Radiology.

Throughout his career, Dr. Dwyer identified, measured, and quantified issues that no one else thought about. His early contributions to digital medical imaging are still a part of the curriculum for new students in the field. Dr. Dwyer has been characterized by his peers as a humble, prolific pioneer. In 2007, he and his wife Mary Lou had 6 surviving children and 16 grandchildren.

At the time of his fellows induction, Dr. Dwyer thanked the following people who encouraged and supported him: Arch W. Templeton, Bruce J. Hillman, Gwilym S. Lodwick, R. Gilbert Jost, Ronald L. Arenson, Donald A.B. Lindberg, Brent K. Stewart, G. James Blaine, David Avrin, Denise R. Aberle, Glendon G. Cox, Roger A. Bauman, Eliot L. Siegel, Bruce I. Reiner, Steven C. Horii, Anna Marie Mason, Phillip G. Drew, Richard Y. Wingard, Seong Ki Mun, W. R. Kimel, C. Leon Partain, and H. K. Huang.